By James Milnes Gaskell
In a short piece which does not merit its title - “Rebuttal to Mr. James Gaskell” - Ursula Huggins-Whitney makes a number of comments about my “Open Letter to the Trustees of the Windsong Trust”, none of which address the substance of my argument. I wrote in another publication “...the simple point in my letter to the Trustees of the Windsong Foundation, which I illustrated with examples, was that it was not right to appoint as sole agent in Nevis for the Foundation the ruling Party's principal political opponent. This would give that sole agent an unacceptable veto on any application put forward by a Government school or the Education Department.
“If positions were reversed and Brantley was the Minister of Education and Joseph Parry was the Leader of the Opposition, then I would say it would not be right for Windsong to appoint Mr. Parry as it's sole agent...”
I do not ascribe to Mr. Parry as she claims, or to any politician the purest of motives. Almost all of them have re-election on their minds. I wish that they could all bear in mind and act upon that dictum of Harry Truman, a much underrated President of the USA, “It is surprising what you can get done if you don't care who gets the credit.” I wish also, as I have written on several occasions, that the NRP Administration would publish their Agreement with Newfound and their Agreement with West Indies Power. The former would tell us what Newfound was obliged to do. We would be able to see if they had met their legal obligations. We cannot see any activity on the ground.
As to West Indies Power, unless we know for certain that final drilling and erection of power plant is happening and when, then it is time to pull the plug on Kerry Macdonald. We need geothermally-produced electricity. Promises of same are not enough. We need decisions and action.
What does Ursula mean when she says, “I think it foolish of (Mr. Gaskell and by extension) Mr. Parry to tell his school officials that they should not have anything to do with the Windsong Foundation and grants because he believes the awarding process will be tainted?” I do not have anything to do with “school officials”. The first I heard of it was that the Principal Education Officer (PEO) had told school principals etc. that they should not approach Windsong. I assume the Minister of Education, Mr. Parry, gave these instructions, but there has been no confirmation. To assert that this is foolish does not meet the argument. It is the situation in which we now find ourselves.
The PEO having given her instructions to the schools, it is clear that no applications will be made to the Foundation through Brantley. It is also a reasonable supposition that the schools would be asked to apply to any impartial committee set up by the Foundation. It is surprising that Mr. Brantley, having criticised the Administration for their instructions to the PEO, has not declared that he would not want to stand in the way of the children of Nevis and that he would gladly step down. This would have been seen as a magnanimous gesture and would have brought him kudos and political credit. As it is, his continuing presence as Windsong's sole agent acts as a block and causes a stalemate, so much so that we have to ask to whom does Ursula's statement refer when she says, “I believe it spiteful to deny any advantage to the children of Nevis to try to garner a short term political advantage?”
Various persons have written on another site saying that the Government is not to be allowed to get its hands on this one million dollars and claiming that the funds would go astray. They should understand that the Windsong Trustees will want to satisfy themselves that such monies as they do commit are actually used for an approved scheme for the benefit of the children of Nevis. They will require properly audited accounts.
